Every day's a school day - practising Welsh on the Carneddau

[Jaxter]

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear (and very windy) and Malky had somehow managed to drink a lot of whisky the previous evening and avoid a hangover
A beautiful morning

Moel Siabod

We had a relatively leisurely breakfast before heading down the road to our start point – boots on and we were off, a few metres down the road before turning off across the burn and past a hostel. We were right underneath Tryfan and it looked impressive
Tryfan

Y Garn

Given how much rain had fallen the day before I was a bit concerned about the burn crossing so we left the path and cut across to the footbridge marked on the map. It turned out to be a good move
Good job we crossed this early!

There was plenty of bracken but traces of path led us through it without too many problems
Looking back to Tryfan

Our ridge ahead

Just before we crossed the wall we met up with the path from the other side of the burn – slightly better than what we’d followed but at least we had dry feet The path led us up towards our ridge and gave us views of the Ffynnon (welsh for lochan, apparently)
Cwm Lloer

Although mostly an easy path there was a wee exciting scrambly bit that was effectively a big rocky step ladder
Wee scramble

The views opened out as we gained height
looking down the glen towards Capel Curig

Tryfan & Glydderau

We were now high on the ridge and exposed to the wind – it was freezing! Ahead to Pen yr Ole Wen

Ffynnon Lloer

Just before the final pull to the summit we stopped to add some layers – the shorts were replaced by leggings after such a promising start

As we popped out the top we could see ahead to our second summit
The ridge to Carnydd Dafydd

Thursday’s hills – Tryfan & the Glyderau
The Glydderau

Tryfan

Bet it’s blowy up there
Snowdon

Summit of Pen Yr Ole Wen

Carnedd Dafydd

Eilidir Fawr

It wasn’t really standing around weather so it was time to get going
Looking back to Pen Yr Ole Wen

Now we were on the ridge the hard work was done and it wasn’t much more than a stroll in gale force winds to our second summit
Ahead to Carnedd Dafydd

Yr Elen & Carnedd Llewelyn

Our refuge for tea drinking the day before
Towards Anglesey

Looking back - the Glydderau on the skyline

Summit of Carnedd Dafydd

Two summits down – we were making fairly quick progress so it was definitely time for some lunch. While we were eating we felt a few spots of rain Fortunately they didn’t come to anything but it did encourage us to add an extra layer, which was probably a good thing as it was freezing!
Impressive crags ahead

Carnedd Llewelyn

Looking back to the Cwmglas Mawr ridge – a good way up apparently
Cool ridge for another time

As we headed towards the bealach it was decision time – were we going to head out to Yr Elen? Why not!
Yr Elen

Malky and his happy face

Despite the brutal wind it was a beautiful day
Looking back to Carnedd Dafydd

Yr Elen

The end of our ridge (later)
Pen Yr Helgi Du

We easily picked up the traverse path which took us across the side of Carnedd Llewelyn
Traversing to Yr Elen

The views back to Carnedd Dafydd were amazing
Carnedd Dafydd

As the traverse became rockier the path got a lot more indistinct and we sort of lost it through the craggy bit. We did find a broken water bottle which someone had dumped which Malky picked up (and is probably still in his bag )
Impressive crags on the bypass

Malky leading the way

Elidir Fawr

More Carneddau

It was an easy climb up to Yr Elen from the bealach and the hardest bit was deciding which bit was the summit! We visited all of them just incase
These rocks looked like bunny ears

Carnedd Llewelyn

The rock type had changed here – impressive spiky slate
Impressive rocks up to Yr Elen

Carnedd Llewelyn

Yr Elen summit

Malky in his cute wee hat

The way ahead to Carnedd Llewelyn

It was cold and time to go – the ascent to Carnedd Llewelyn looked steep
Looking back to Yr Elen

Just for you Fife Flyer
Massive offshore windfarm

The ascent was actually easy enough with a good path the whole way – again the hardest bit was finding the summit as there were several potential highest points
Carnedd Llewelyn

Onwards – from here it was downhill(ish)
Heading down to Pen Yr Helgi Du

Impressive rock climbing cliffs

Hold onto your hats

Another wee scrambly section barred the way – nothing difficult, just a bit awkward, especially in the wind as I needed a third hand to hold my hat on
Ffynnon Llugwy reservoir

The ridge ahead

The ascent to Pen Y Helgi Du was very steep and a little bit hands on – again nothing difficult but very windy with quite a big drop!
Up there?!

looking back

Our final summit of the day – a mere Hewitt, not a 3000er
Pen Y Helgi Du summit

North

We had a wee breather to enjoy the views – I unearthed a surprisingly intact banana from 3 days ago, and Malky even saved me a bite of his Crunchie
Back to Carnedd Llewelyn

It was tempting (but also not tempting at all) to head out here….one for another time
Pen Llithrig Y Wrach

It was time to go – we headed down the lovely grassy ridge
Malky holding his own against the wind

We got lovely views into Llyn Ogwen as we dropped – we had thought to drop onto the track to save some distance but it didn’t look worth the effort
Tryfan and Llyn Ogwen

Our ridge down

Tryfan and Llyn Ogwen

Tryfan in the sun

Tryfan

It was getting super warm so we had to lose more layers as we dropped – a good path almost all the way got a bit boggy just at the end, hardly surprising given the rain the day before. I was surprised everything wasn’t a lot wetter!

We crossed the main road and walked along the old road which was a much nicer route back to the car
Tryfan

Climbers on Little Tryfan

The last few km felt like an eternity and we were very pleased to be back at the car. We had hoped to pick up ice cream in Capel Curig but couldn’t find any so went back to the Moel Siabod café for tea and cake before heading back to the campsite for a well earned shower

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[malky_c]

Where's my red pen - I'm going to mark your Welsh homework in a minute .

Great pair of reports - saves me the effort!

[Skyelines]

The Carneddau are great, less crowded than the rest of the nearby hills.

Ffynnon means spring, well or fountain.

Lloer means moon

So Ffynnon Lloer - well of the moon

[Jaxter]

Where's my red pen - I'm going to mark your Welsh homework in a minute .

Great pair of reports - saves me the effort!

Will you mark it in sheep's blood?

The Carneddau are great, less crowded than the rest of the nearby hills.

Ffynnon means spring, well or fountain.

Lloer means moon

So Ffynnon Lloer - well of the moon

I agree - really enjoyed my day on the Carneddau. Amazing how much I take my (very very basic) understanding of Gaelic for granted - I never realised how much I knew until I went to Wales and everything was completely different. Almost like a foreign language